THE Easter Road men are locked in a fight to avoid the play-offs with games against Partick Thistle, Ross County and Kilmarnock looming.

TERRY Butcher watched Hibs slip to another derby defeat and insisted he has never been more confident about survival.

The Easter Road club are in the relegation mire after a 2-1 reverse by Hearts made it six defeats on the spin.

Hibs were undone by more dreadful defending as Callum Paterson towered above the home defence twice in the first half to leave the Jambos jubilant.

Hibs defender Jordon Forster, twice at fault, handed his side a lifeline with a second-half header of his own but Hibs couldn’t grab an equaliser.

Now the Leith men are locked in a fight to avoid the play-offs with games against Partick Thistle, Ross County and Kilmarnock looming.

Butcher said: “It’s no consolation when you lose a derby match but that’s the best we’ve played in a while. But two poor pieces of marking and all our good work was undone.

“However, the reaction of the players was good in getting a goal back. If we take that quality and fight into our remaining three matches we’ll be fine.

“I’ve been here before as a player and boss and you need to grab on to the positives. A lot of things were positive today.

“We knocked it about well, tested Hearts, took responsibility and showed a lot of fight.

“We can cut teams open, with Alex Harris running down the right and Sam Stanton linking with Jason Cummings. We must take that into our next games.

“We showed the ability to scrap but also to perform under pressure.”

Hibs have lost their last two matches to Hearts and the travelling army from Gorgie, their club already relegated, goaded their rivals by singing they’d be joining them next season in the Championship.

Butcher added: “Hearts deserve credit. They had two chances and took them. I can’t recall the last time we scored two goals in a match but showed we create enough chances to do that.”